Whether he will close ranks with the Tamil Maanila Congress which has decided to float a third front with a similar agenda, the maverick Swamy will disclose on July 24 at a public meeting in Madurai.

Swamy has effectively relaunched his no-holds-barred bashing of Amma and her friend Sasikala. More dirty linen from the Poes Garden will be washed in public and more sensational disclosures will follow, he indicated.

At a crowded media conference today, he claimed she had not changed her arbitrary and arrogant style of functioning and had no concept whatsoever of loyalty and gratitude.

``It is not a question of seat. It is a question of behaviour... It would have been civilised on her part if she had only phoned or written to me that she was breakingties with the Janata Party,'' he said.

But what prompted her to slam the door? Swamy speculates that the main reason is the ``Mannargudi mafia'' of Sasikala and Co. According to him, Sasikala and her cohorts, in a bid to wriggle out of their economic offences cases, still continued their links with the BJP. And Swamy's presence in the AIADMK Front would be an embarrassment for future renewal of AIADMK-BJP ties, in the event of BJP forming a government at the Centre. He said the AIADMK could walk out on Congress and tie up with BJP in the future.

Bluntly put in Swamy-lingo: ``Jayalalitha is not her own person, but putty clay in the hands of a criminal lumpen cabal which seeks to control her physically and mentally.''

Swamy also claimed that Jayalalitha, at a meeting on June 23, asked him to withdraw the cases of corruption he had filed against her. He had expressed his inability as the petitions were in the nature of public interest litigation. ``She was unhappy with my response''.

He thought anotherreason could be the Sedapatti Muthiah episode. When Muthiah's vote went unregistered in Parliament during the confidence motion last April, Swamy had told Jayalalitha that the fumble was ``ominous'' and that ``persons close to her were still meeting BJP leaders in Delhi''. According to Swamy, ``these persons'' had assured the BJP that the confidence motion would not be defeated.

Swamy said he had also informed her about the katta panchayat activities of her party's senior functionary in Madurai and also about another functionary who faced a CBI probe for his alleged ``defrauding of nationlised banks by pledging fake bogus RC books of tractors.'' Does she have any regrets over having toppled the BJP government? ``It was she who said that she had made up her mind about pulling down the Vajpayee Government and asked me to make arrangements for the tea party in Delhi,'' Swamy said, not willing to take any credit for the toppling game.

Asked if he would implead himself in the cases against Jayalalitha now, hesaid the incompetent handling of the cases by the DMK Government was responsible for the delay in the cases. ``If I have to implead in the cases, I have to pay Rs 10 for getting every copy of the 10,000 page documents. If you can give me the money I will argue in the case''.